Characteristics and factors of Modernism in Literature

 

Modernist writers proclaimed a new "subject matter" for literature and they felt that their new way of looking at life required a new form, a new way of writing. Writers of this period tend to pursue more experimental and usually more highly individualistic forms of writing. The sense of a changing world was stimulated by radical new developments, such as:

      new insights from the emerging fields of psychology and sociology

      anthropological studies of comparative religion

      new theories of electromagnetism and quantum physics

      a growing critique of British imperialism and the ideology of empire

      the growing force of doctrines of racial superiority in Germany

      the escalation of warfare to a global level

      shifting power structures, particularly as women enter the work force

      the emergence of a new "city consciousness"

      new information technologies such as radio and cinema

      the advent of mass democracy and the rise of mass communication

      fin-de-siècle ["end-of-the-century"] consciousness

 

Some other characteristics of Modern Poetry:

      Development of science and technology

      Rapid industrialization and urbanization

      Expression in trade, commerce and economic activities

      Lack of faith on religion and critical outlook towards life

      Spread of education and literature

      Rise and growth of middle-class

      Women empowerment

      Acute frustration and pessimism

      Experimental tendency in art and literature

      Dominance of various ‘isms’ like imagism, Dadaism, symbolism, realism etc.

      Complexity and obscurity in thought and expression

      Rejection of orthodoxy

      Psychological approach

      Over materialism and lack of spiritualism

Factors behind Modernism:

Notwithstanding it is usually said to have begun with the French Symbolist movement and it artificially ends with the Second World War, the beginning and ending of the modernist period are of course arbitrary. Poets like W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) and Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) started in a post-Romantic, Symbolist vein and modernized their poetic idiom after being affected by political and literary developments. Imagism proved radical and important, marking a new point of departure for poetry. Some consider 'it began in the works of Hardy and Pound, Eliot and Yeats, Williams and Stevens.[4] English language poets, like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Basil Bunting ('a born modernist'), Wallace Stevens and E.E. Cummings also went on to produce work after World War II.

The major three factors behind the modernism are given below-

      World War I (1914-1918): 

The outbreak of World War I represented a setback for the budding modernist movement for a number of reasons: firstly, writers like Aldington found themselves in active service; secondly, paper shortages and related factors meant that publication of new work became increasingly difficult; and, thirdly, public sentiment in time of war meant that war poets such as Wilfred Owen, who wrote more conventional verse, became increasingly popular. One poet who served in the war, the visual artist David Jones, later resisted this trend in his long experimental war poem "In Parenthesis", which was written directly out of his trench experiences but was not published until 1937. The war also tended to undermine the optimism of the Imagists. This was reflected in a number of major poems written in its aftermath. Pound's "Homage to Sextus Propertius" (1919) uses the loose translations and transformations of the Latin poet Propertius to ridicule war propaganda and the idea of empire. His "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" (1921) represents his farewell to Imagism and lyric poetry in general. The writing of these poems coincided with Pound's decision to abandon London permanently. Sound poetry emerged in this period as a response to the war. For many Dadaists, including German writer Hugo Ball and New York poet and performer Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, sound poems were protestations against the sounds of war. As Irene Gammel and Suzanne Zelazo write, “Born as the trench warfare intensified, phonetic poetry was the language of trauma, a new language to counter the noise of the cannons”. The Baroness’s poem “Klink-Hratzvenga (Death-wail)”, written in response to her husband’s suicide after the war’s end, was “a mourning song in nonsense sounds that transcended national boundaries”. Working from a confrontational feminist and artistic agenda, the Baroness asserted a distinctly female subjectivity in the post-WWI era. The most famous English-language modernist work arising out of this post-war disillusionment is T. S. Eliot's epic "The Waste Land" (1922)

 

      Russian Revolution / Communist Revolution (1919-1920): 

The Russian Revolution took place in 1917, during the final phase of World War I. It removed Russia from the war and brought about the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), replacing Russia’s traditional monarchy with the world’s first Communist state. The revolution happened in stages through two separate coups, one in February and one in October. The new government, led by Vladimir Lenin, would solidify its power only after three years of civil war, which ended in 1920. Although the events of the Russian Revolution happened abruptly, the causes may be traced back nearly a century.

      Great Depression / Financial Crisis (1930): 

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations; however, in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the world's economy can decline. The Great Depression has been the subject of much writing, as authors have sought to evaluate an era that caused financial as well as emotional trauma. Perhaps the most noteworthy and famous novel written on the subject is The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded both the Nobel Prize for literature and the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers who are forced from their home as drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agricultural industry occur during the Great Depression. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is another important novella about a journey during the Great Depression. Additionally, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is set during the Great Depression. Margaret Atwood's Booker prize-winning The Blind Assassin is likewise set in the Great Depression, centering on a privileged socialite's love affair with a Marxist revolutionary. The era spurred the resurgence of social realism, practiced by many who started their writing careers on relief programs, especially the Federal Writers' Project in the U.S.